Changes Coming to Marshfield’s Farmers Market

Tuesday, May 27th, 2025 -- 9:00 AM

(Sirena Mankins, Editor of the Hub City Times) Changes are coming to the farmers market at Festival Foods, and it’s causing some confusion with vendors and shoppers alike.

According to Sirena Mankins, Editor of the Hub City Times, this year, the market will only be held on Saturdays, instead of both Saturday and Sunday. There also will be a one-time $50 vendor fee, which is good for the entire season.

Organizers say that breaks down to about $3 per week. One of the main questions on people’s minds: Why are the changes being made? For years, Festival Foods has helped organize the market, held on Saturdays and Sundays, and it’s been free for vendors.

But because of changes at the state level, the grocery store no longer has the capacity to check in vendors. It will, however, still offer the use of its parking lot.

A couple years ago, Wisconsin changed the regulations around farmers market vendors. The state Department of Revenue now requires all of them to have certain forms on file to ensure they’re paying taxes.

“Two years ago they were trying to just teach people to get used to the new system,” said Melissa Haack, the regional farmers market coordinator for Wood County. Last year, she said, they started enforcing it. “There are fines if you don’t comply,” she added.

Until now, organizing the market fell to Festival Foods. But with the state requirements, it’s become challenging for Festival employees to take on registering each vendor each week. They have to make sure vendors have a seller’s permit, tax ID number and any sales exemption information, among other items.

“The thing is, they just don't have the capacity when there's 40-50 vendors,” Haack said. “It just ends up being a lot for one person to maintain in addition to doing his normal, 40-hour week job.”

This year, the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry, or MACCI, will be overseeing the market. Denise Sonnemann, MACCI’S executive director, said if they hadn’t stepped up, the market likely would have closed for the season.

“We didn’t want to see it go away,” she said. Festival Foods “is still supporting it. … They’re still going to provide the bags and they’ll help us, but they just don’t have the staff. If nobody was going to step up, it was going to go away.”

Sonnemann said this will just be a transition year until MACCI finds another group to take over. “We would like to see some of the vendors step up and help with it,” she said. “It’s a huge benefit to our community.”

Haack said she’ll be there to help with the technical aspects and making sure all the rules and regulations are followed and help create some structure. She said she knows firsthand how important farmers markets can be for small vendors.

“I’ve been a farmers market vendor for about five years, so I know how important farmers markets are for the livelihood of people,” she said. “It’s what they need to survive.”

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.